Showing blog posts by Jackie Tortora

I'm the blog editor and social media manager at the AFL-CIO. Interviewing union musicians was my introduction to the labor movement. My first job after graduating college was in Syracuse, New York, where I wrote and edited the International Musician, the monthly magazine for the American Federation of Musicians (AFM). Protecting Social Security and Medicare from benefit cuts brought me to Washington, D.C., where I spent two years as a new media coordinator at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. I came to the AFL-CIO in the summer of 2012, just in time to re-elect President Barack Obama. When I'm not tweeting about America's unions, it's likely I'm watching Syracuse basketball and football.

In our new regular feature, we'll be taking a look at the villains who are doing their best to prevent the United States from raising wages for all or some Americans. In this series, we're going to look past the usual suspects—for example, while it is true that too often elected officials get in the way of a fair economy, we want to dig deeper.

The economy added 288,000 jobs in June, up from 217,000 in May, and the unemployment rate was 6.1%, a dip from last month’s 6.3%, according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This marks the lowest unemployment rate since 2008 and the best five-month stretch of job growth since the early 1990s.

This weekend, 58 legal residents took the next step in becoming American citizens with the help of volunteers at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C. A total of 49 DREAMers, who came to the United States as children, also attended to receive help filling out paperwork for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy and renewals under the program.

Just like workers are stronger together, so are families. Ronald McDonald Houses ensure children who receive treatment at a hospital far away from home can have their family close by without the burden of hotel expenses during a long hospital stay.

A Ronald McDonald House in Albany, N.Y., was in need of repair, and Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 236 pitched in to renovate the facility.

The labor movement isn't just boots on the ground, said Connie Leak, a UAW member and president of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW). "It's heels, flats and sneakers." Working women are impacting the labor movement in a big way.

Yesterday, more than 250 women workers and labor participants gathered in Washington, D.C., at the AFL-CIO headquarters to discuss issues that affect women workers and families and talk about collective bargaining as the solution.

Women are coming together and improving their workplaces by fighting for policies that include everything from raising the tipped and minimum wage, making equal pay for equal work a reality, demanding more consistent and adequate hours in retail scheduling to making sure everyone has access to affordable child care and can receive basic workplace accommodations during pregnancy. These women workers know collective bargaining and collective action are important for achieving workplace policies that work for women and families.